Portage County unemployment rate increases to 6% in November

Portage County's unemployment rate ticked up two tenths of a percentage point from 5.8 percent in October to 6.0 percent in November, according to data released Friday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. It was the first increased after three straight months of decline.

Portage had the 20th lowest jobless rate out of Ohio's 88 counties. A year ago, the county's November rate was 6.7 percent.

During the past recession, the jobless rate in Portage peaked at 11.5 percent in January, 2010. The lowest rate for Portage in the past six years was 4.3 percent in May, 2006.

In November, there were 5,500 people unemployed out of a workforce of 91,500, according to ODJFS.

The number of jobless workers in Ohio was 396,000, down from 406,000 in September, according to ODJFS. The number of unemployed has decreased by 88,000 in the past 12 months from 484,000. The October jobless rate for Ohio was 8.3 percent a year ago.

The U.S. unemployment rate for November was 7.7 percent, down from 7.9 percent in October, and down from 8.7 percent in November 2011.

Ohio's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.8 percent in November, down from 6.9 percent in October, according to data released Friday.

Jobless rates ranged from a low of 3.9 percent in Mercer County to a high of 11.9 percent in Pike County. Rates increased in 66 of the 88 counties. Ten counties had jobless rates at or below 5.5 percent in November while eight had rates at or above 9.5 percent.

Rates of five of six counties contiguous to Portage went up. Only Trumbull went down, from 7.8 percent in October to 7.7 percent in November. The others were: Cuyahoga, 7.0 (6.2 in Oct.); Geauga, 5.5 (4.7 in Oct.); Mahoning, 6.9 (6.6 in Oct.); Stark, 6.4 (6.2 in Oct.); Summit, 6.0 (5.9 in Oct).